Sunday, March 25, 2007

This is not my first attempt at jammish endeavors. Last weekend I bought early strawberries at the Alemany Farmer's Market and attempted to make a batch. The strawberries themselves were pretty unimpressive, as perhaps should be expected in March. I didn't add enough lemon to account for the lack of pectin in the berries and made an ill-considered grab for a metal sieve that had been too close to the stove, resulting in a pretty track of blisters across my palm.

However, I found canning supplies in my neighborhoodish (thank you, Rainbow) and was delighted with my first visit to Alemany. I disembarked the Bernal Heights bus under a freeway and couldn't remember the Google Map path to the action. Luckily, one of my fellow passengers was headed in that direction and tipped me on the best approach to the narrow aisle setup of this particular market.

So this weekend: marmalade. I've given up on berries until the season strikes. At one vendor I found excellent Oro Blanco grapefruits, which led me to a recipe for orange-lemon-grapefruit marmalade from Marion Brown's 1955 Pickles and Preserves.

First I peeled thin strips from the skins with a potato peeler, discarding seeds and pith, of which there was a disturbing amount on that grapefruit. After letting the juice and fruit stew overnight on the counter, I boiled the concoction for ten minutes and set it aside to rest. Then...then nothing, because it's still Sunday. But it looks like I'm waking up early tomorrow to process some marmalade.